Local Football Facility Plan Forest of Dean

Forest of Dean is located in the Gloucestershire region. The current population of the Authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 85,957. This is expected to rise to 96,284 by 2039.

31.9% of the Forest of Deans's population is within NS SEC classification 6-8 (lower socio-economic groups). This figure is higher than the national average (30.6%)

Forest of Dean’s ethnic composition is primarily White (98.5%) and this is higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Forest of Dean's population represented by the BAME community is 1.5%. This is below the national average (14.6%).

Local Authority

Forest of Dean District Council’s Vision for the District is to to improve the health and well-being of residents and to promote inclusive and resilient communities. The Community Outcomes & Objectives Strategy (2017) aims to work with key partners to:

• Improve the health and well-being of residents
• Keep the District safe
• Promote inclusive and resilient communities

The local authority has no Playing Pitch Strategy in place and there are currently no plans to undertake one.

County Football Association

Forest of Dean is covered by Gloucestershire FA which provides governance and development support to all aspects of local football including coaches, referees, volunteers, clubs and leagues; supporting football for all. Gloucestershire FA has a designated facilities investment lead officer who works to ensure the right facilities are located in the right locations.

Football Foundation

The Regional Engagement Manager and Regional Technical Project Manager at the Football Foundation work collaboratively with Gloucestershire FA to provide pre-application support to priority projects for potential investment.

Sport England

Has a network of planning managers who have a statutory role in the planning system to protect playing fields and provide consultation responses to planning applications relating to sporting facilities . They also play a key role in strategic planning for sports facilities, providing advice and support to local authorities to assess need for facilities in their local area.

Professional Club Community Organisations (CCOs)

These continue to expand and enhance their range of community delivery, offering a variety of programmes and services to support local communities (sporting and non-sporting). There is no active CCO in Forest of Dean.

Local leisure operator

Freedom Leisure is the key leisure operator in Forest of Dean. It currently operates five key sites across the District including key strategic site Freedom Leisure Cinderford, which has a full size 3G FTP.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in Forest of Dean, eight individuals (representing six local organisations) were consulted. These include:

• Forest of Dean District Council
• Freedom Leisure
• Coleford Town Council

(See Appendix B for full list of consultees)

Clubs

There are over 91,000 community football teams in England, spread over an expansive network of clubs and leagues. The Forest of Dean has a total of 168 teams, which is comparable to local areas of a similar size.

The FA is investing to support clubs both on and off the pitch which includes an aim to have a qualified FA coach with every youth team by 2020/21. In addition, it will support 1,000 clubs to create full player pathways from youth to adult teams and develop 150 community football hubs with male and female pathways, disability and recreational playing opportunities.

Over the last 10-years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. In the Forest of Dean, three clubs have more than ten registered teams. The largest of these (based upon 2017-18 affiliation data) are:

• Broadwell Amateurs Youth & Adult - 17 teams
• Cinderford Town Youth FC - 16 teams
• Lydney Town Youth & Adults FC - 12 teams

11 Gloucestershire FA affiliated leagues operate in the Forest of Dean. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including women and girls, disability, youth and adults.

The Forest of Dean largest local leagues (2017-18) include:

• North Gloucestershire League – 51 Gloucestershire teams (51 Forest of Dean teams)– home and away
• Cheltenham Youth League – 233 Gloucestershire teams (22 Forest of Dean teams)– home and away
• Severn Valley Youth League – 143 Gloucestershire teams (18 Forest of Dean teams)– home and away
• Mid-Glos Mini Soccer League – 106 Gloucestershire teams (16 Forest of Dean teams)- home and away

Gloucestershire FA reports that there is some cross boundary migration in the Forest of Dean due to teams migrating outwards to the youth leagues based across neighbouring local areas.

It should also be noted that there are a number of Forest of Dean based teams who participate within University, College, and regional based leagues.

Disability football

There are 9.4 million people in England with a long-standing limiting disability, illness or condition which equates to 18% of the population – almost one in five. Football playing opportunities should be flexible, inclusive and accessible for everyone, whatever their level of ability. This could entail inclusion in mainstream activity or teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability.

In Forest of Dean there are two football teams/sessions specifically for people with a disability. It is a priority of the County FA to sustain this provision. For talented players the FA runs Regional Centres and England national squads.

Women and girls

The FA has big ambitions for the female game and aims to double levels of participation by 2020. To achieve this requires a combined effort across four pathways: education, recreation, competition and talent.

Education environments have a huge impact on the first experience of football for young girls. This pathway can offer many opportunities for females of all ages to develop and grow a lifelong interest in football.

FA Wildcats girls football centres provide the first step on the recreational pathway, the programme provides girls aged 5-11 with regular opportunities to play football in a fun and engaging environment. The Forest of Dean has two FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity.

At 12, The Forest of Dean’s number of female teams is lower than local areas of a similar size. The County FA’s priority is to support existing clubs to grow and encourage more clubs to develop playing opportunities for females. The local girls league is the Gloucester County Girls League and matches are played on a home and away basis. The league is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female league is the Gloucestershire Women’s County League and matches are played on a home and away and the league is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Bristol City Women which is located in Filton, South Gloucestershire. Higher level talent pathway opportunities are also provided regionally and nationally by the FA, culminating in the England Women’s national squads. The most local Women’s Super League team is Bristol City Women’s FC which provides player pathway opportunities for gifted and talented female players and a spectator interest for fans.

Small-sided football

Many different types of small-sided football are played in England, from teams and leagues to recreational and informal. It is an established and important part of the modern game.

Small-sided teams & leagues are organised and competitive activities; typically with players registered to clubs and affiliated to leagues and their County FAs. Examples include Futsal and local small-sided leagues running at venues such as sports halls, 3G FTPs or small-sided 3G centres.

Key local providers include:

• Freedom Leisure, Cinderford/Newent/Lydney

Futsal is an exciting, fast-paced, small sided team game that is widely played across the world. Typically it’s played on an indoor surface with hockey-sized goals and a size 4 football with reduced ball bounce. It is the FA’s aim to ensure Futsal is available across the country.

There is currently one futsal team in Forest of Dean that play in the BUCS Futsal League at key site location, Hartpury College. It is a priority for Gloucestershire FA to sustain Futsal provision for players.

Recreational football

Recreational football is played where facilities are typically booked and there might be someone to help organise. Examples include FA Just Play sessions, walking football and casual pitch hire for small-sided match play.

There are currently three FA Just Play Centres in Forest of Dean. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation such as Freedom Leisure (only provider). Walking football and Just Play are areas that Gloucestershire FA has prioritised to be sustained. Other local recreational football programmes include casual bookings which are delivered by a range of organisations including Freedom Leisure.

Informal football

Informal football is played in local parks and green spaces – it is free, open access and often played spontaneously (normal clothing is worn). Common examples include a kick-about at a local park or on a multi-use games area (MUGA).

Currently, informal football in the Forest of Dean is played particularly in the central part of the Borough. Cinderford Town FC, Angus Buchanan VC Recreational Grounds and Coalway Rec are key site locations that are heavily used.

The key strengths of local football in the Forest of Dean include Adult Male, Adult Female and Youth provision and it is recommend that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, there are aspects of football provision that lower than local authorities of a similar size , these include Small-Sided provision.

It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for the Forest of Dean are:

1. Sustain & Increase the number of Youth & Adult Female teams
2. Sustain & Increase Adult Male 11v11 Football
3. Increase Small-Sided, Futsal & Recreational playing opportunities
4. Sustain & Increase Disability football provision
5. Retain youth and Mini-Soccer participation

The facilities required to assist this are now set out in the Assets and Opportunities section.

Additionally, each priority project that progresses to a funding application via the Football Foundation will produce a detailed ‘site development plan’ specifying all football development activity, usage and key partner engagement.

This section reviews existing football facility assets in Forest of Dean. It identifies current issues and presents opportunities for improvements, including a list of priority projects for potential investment.

Local assets and opportunities have been reviewed inline with four investment priorities:

1. 3G FTPs
2. Improved grass pitches
3. Changing room pavilions / clubhouses
4. Small-sided facilities

To ensure a consistent and high quality approach, each local area has been reviewed applying a standard approach, supplemented by input from consultation with local partners and stakeholder organisations.

While each investment priority is reviewed individually, it is understood that they can be inter-reliant; account is, thus, taken of these potential connections.

3G FTPs are a high quality and indispensable part of modern football facilities; their impact cannot be underestimated. In recent years the industry has seen major innovations and improvements to artificial surfaces (and sports lighting). This has created playing surfaces that replicate a good standard natural turf pitch whilst significantly increasing levels of use (x20). All FTPs must have sports lighting to achieve this.

The high quality, consistent playing surface is the ideal environment to play the game and for young people to learn. With regular maintenance programmes, FTPs can be heavily used all year round with no decline in quality. They almost completely negate annoying fixture cancellations during winter months, helping football to be a key part of a regular physical activity habit.

High capacity levels offer a great opportunity to embrace all formats and engage all participants. A full-sized 3G caters for an average of 1,200 participants per week and is suitable for various location types. That means being fully inclusive to all sections of the community, with a particular focus on under-represented groups such as women and girls, people with a disability, BAME communities and people from lower socio-economic groups.

The way 3G FTPs are used is rapidly changing; current line-marking systems allow for match play across all formats of football (5v5, 7v7, 9v9 and 11v11). This enables significant levels of match-play to be transferred from grass to 3G.

The national ‘Mini Pitch’ programme delivers small 3G FTPs at primary school sites to provide a high quality introduction to football and get children more physically active. While mini pitches are reviewed in this section, they are not included in the demand and supply analysis for 3G FTPs.

FA data states that there are currently three 3G FTPs in Forest of Dean; this is a shortfall of one pitch relative to assessed demand.

The existing 3G FTPs in Forest of Dean are located at:

• Freedom Leisure Cinderford
• Hartpury College (2x pitches)

All three pitches are available for community use although it is identified that pitches at Hartpury College offer reduced community availability due to the high levels of student programming. No pitches are on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play). It is strongly recommended that all the pitches are put on the register to enable match play on 3G.

The geographical spread of existing facilities is uneven; the two pitches operated by Hartpury College are located in the north east of the District and the pitch at Freedom Leisure Cinderford is centrally located. There are identified provision gaps towards the south of the District, particularly in the Coleford and Sedbury areas.

Gloucestershire College is soon to to relocate from its current site (Five Acres) into Cinderford. West Dean Parish Council has aspirations to develop the Five Acre site for recreation and leisure purposes. The largest football club in the locality is Broadwell Amateurs FC.

Local consultation reveals common issues with low availability and long travel distances for accessing 3G FTPs and it is recommended that these issues are addressed.

The priority outcomes for these potential sites will focus on girls’ after school clubs, community FA Wildcats Centres, professional club community organisation delivery and local club training.

Two priority projects for potential investment have been identified. Undersupply was calculated using the FA 3G FTP demand and supply model. Each site was selected by local partners based on a rationale of good access, high population, geographical spread, success and quality of existing facilities:

1 - Freedom Leisure Sedbury - 9v9 3G FTP

• Existing facilities - 1 x adult football pitch
• Existing users - 2 x affiliated teams
• Rationale - participation growth in: junior football, senior football, women’s and girls football, recreational football, disability football and over 50s participation.

2 - Five Acres site development - 11v11 3G FTP

• Existing facilities - none
• Existing users - none, site currently closed.
• Rationale - participation growth in: junior football, senior football, women’s and girls football, recreational football, disability football and over 50s participation.

Playing fields are one of the most important resources for sport in England. All football players should have the opportunity to play on good quality grass pitches. However, FA data shows that 63% of pitches in England are poor / low standard and 1 in 6 games are cancelled. As such, poor pitch quality is consistently cited as the number one issue for players.

The priority is, therefore, to sustainably improve grass pitch quality across all main pitch owners (local authorities, education establishments and clubs). However, the level of maintenance required to obtain good quality standards is regularly affected by restricted budgets and limited knowledge/ training. Compaction and grass coverage are two key causes of poor quality pitches. Both are commonly treated via a maintenance driven solution (and do not necessarily require costly drainage schemes).

Playing fields are also a valuable resources for informal play and open-access sites are encouraged but, for many, problems such as dog fouling and vandalism mean that they need to be protected with mitigation measures such as fencing.

In many local areas the key challenge is to create a sustainable approach to provide good quality football pitches for the long-term. Many local authorities (78%) intend to increase pitch hire fees in the future. However, many players (63%) believe facilities are already expensive and some (16%) believe prices are prohibitive. A sustainable solution should, therefore, carefully balance pitch quality and affordability.

While the education sector (37%) and local authorities (32%) are still the principal asset owners of grass pitches, clubs / leagues own or maintain an increasing share (currently 25%). Assets and opportunities have been considered across each sector.

Although large (3+ pitch) strategic sites are important and make up much of the project list within the LFFPs, this does not mean that other club, league and community/voluntary sites are not important or eligible for funding. These sites are key to the Football Foundation's Grass Pitch Programme to deliver 20,000 good quality pitches.

For more information click here.

PitchPower

The PitchPower app is the gateway to any grass pitch improvement funding. It is the tool that will allow clubs and organisations to complete pitch inspections and access funds.

If you haven't signed up and completed a PitchPower pitch inspection, you will need to do this before you can apply for the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund.

Learn more by clicking here.

PitchFinder indicates that there are currently six grass pitch sites in Forest of Dean with three or more full-size pitch equivalents containing 19 grass pitches. In addition, Lakers School which adjoins onto the Five Acres site has a cumulative total of four grass pitches, however this was not identified by PitchFinder.

All pitches are considered to be standard quality. Local consultation does not highlight issues with poor quality or low availability across the District. It should be noted that the District Council has no ownership or management of playing pitches.

Two priority projects for potential investment have been identified. The two sites are adjacent to one another and accommodate two grass football pitches each. Prioritisation was informed by selecting sites that were most well utilised. The Lakers School/Five Acres site is the current home base of Broadwell Amateurs Youth FC.

2 - Five Acres development - natural grass pitch improvements

• Existing facilities - 2 x grass pitches
• Existing users - 14 affiliated teams. Home of Broadwell Amateurs Youth FC
• Rationale - Potential participation growth in junior & senior football and women & girls football.

3 - Lakers School - natural grass pitch improvements

• Existing facilities - 2 x grass pitches
• Existing users - 14 affiliated teams. Home of Broadwell Amateurs Youth FC
• Rationale - Potential participation growth in junior & senior football and women & girls football.

These can provide a number of different benefits. While the primary function is normally the provision of changing rooms to accommodate match-play and training (for players and officials), there can be equal value in facilities such as community and education rooms, catering facilities and spectator toilets.

Each project will take a progressive approach to pavilions and clubhouses (beyond the provision of changing rooms) and be open to new opportunities to engage the whole community. That means, creating environments that are welcoming to players, spectators, volunteers, officials and all sections of the community.

Such assets should support other investment priorities (e.g. 3G FTPs and grass pitches) and be located at sites that will have the greatest impact on local communities. To ensure this, focus is given to sites with three or more full-size pitch equivalents. However, as pitch quality is the number one priority for players this is prioritised before investment in changing room pavilions /clubhouses.

Clearly, facilities need to be well managed and maintained to keep them in a good state of repair. Consideration will be given to reviewing the best operator solution for key sites and the installation of revenue generating features such as catering facilities and community rooms. To achieve this, business plan support will be given to each priority project as it progresses to an application to the Football Foundation.

Of the six key sites with three or more full-size pitch equivalents in Forest of Dean, all have suitable changing room pavilions/clubhouses. Consultation did however reveal an opportunity at the Five Acre site (adjoined by Lakers School) to development a clubhouse/pavilion to accommodate Broadwell Amateurs Youth FC along side other community groups.

One priority project for potential investment has therefore been identified.

2 - Five Acres Development - new changing pavilion/clubhouse

• Existing facilities - 2 x grass pitches
• Existing users - 14 affiliated teams
• Rationale - Potential participation growth in junior & senior football, women & girls, lower socio- economic groups.

Good facilities are important to all small-sided football players, but it is important to understand the different formats of the small-sided game and the various facility types they relate to.

Research suggests that small-sided players in teams & leagues, and in recreational sessions, prefer a 3G surface type because it replicates a good standard natural turf pitch. These facilities have already been covered in the 3G FTP section of this LFFP.

Indoor environments currently accommodate 20% of football participation and are also popular with players in teams & leagues and recreational sessions . Indoor sports halls are most popular, along with some community halls and indoor 3G centres. Environments need to be engaging, have clear line-marking and the correct size goalposts.

Informal players require facilities that are open and free to access as this enables play opportunities that are often spontaneous. In these circumstances multi-use games areas (MUGAs) can be effective in areas of high urban population and limited green space. Such facilities can be modern, bright, creative and engaging. While this plan will identify suitable locations for such facilities, the design and specifics of the facility type can be agreed at a later stage with Football Foundation staff when projects are ready to progress to pre-application stage.

Parks and open green spaces are also important to informal play and require goalposts and zones that are free from litter and dog fouling.

Local consultation reveals there are no indoor facilities that require improvement to develop small-sided football.

No potential opportunities for MUGA’s have been identified from consultation.

Following local consultation, two locations have been identified to support small-sided informal football. Here, the rationale is based on highly popular local parks and open green spaces with suitable space / areas to increase informal football:

4 - Bathurst Park - Small sided informal

• Existing facilities - four junior football pitches
• Existing users - high levels of informal football
• Rationale - sustain and grow informal football

5 - Angus Buchanan - Small sided informal

• Existing facilities - none
• Existing users - high levels of informal football
• Rationale - sustain and grow informal football

• Regional Manager - Freedom Leisure
• Council Leader - Forest of Dean Council
• Club Secretary - Cinderford Town Youth FC
• Chairman - Broadwell Amateurs FC
• Club Secretary - Broadwell Youth FC
• Town Clerk - Coleford Town Council